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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Dean’s Autographed 1969 Topps baseball card set

What does the owner of Dean's Cards collect for fun? This year it is the 1969 Topps Baseball card set - completely autographed. I have posted the set online so everyone can enjoy it. Please click here to view the Autographed 1969 Topps baseball card set.

The mailman just delivered the June 4th copy of the Sports Collectors Digest. The cover story and featured set is this issue is my personal favorite – the 1969 Topps Set. T.S O’Connell was kind enough to ask me to help contribute to his 1969 Topps baseball card article.

SCD also published a short article my me about my 1969 Topps autographed set. It was a total surprise to me. Please feel free to check it out.

I am not sure that I will ever get the set completed, but it sure has been fun. I have posted scans of the partially completed 1969 Topps Baseball Card set online for everyone’s enjoyment.

Six of my favorite 1969 Topps autographed cards include:

#95 Johnny Bench’s Topps All-Star Rookie Card signed in pen. This is my personal favorite of all of Bench's cards. Take notice of the #55 on his jersey. The uniform that Bench is wearing is the home jersey that the Reds wore up through the 1966 season. This photograph was most likely taken in spring training of 1966 when Bench was 18 years old.

#147 Leo Durocher - I admire the time and care that Leo took in signing the card. Leo was once described as the “most hated man in baseball”. Although “Leo the Lip” looks fairly tame on his 1969 card, he was known for his combative nature. As a player, Leo would constantly get into fist fights with players, umpires and fans. (To Leo's credit, he never came to blows with the peanut vendor.) In 1969, his Cubs were in 1st place by 5 games on Sept 1st. The Cubs went 8-17 during the month and finished 8 games behind the Mets. Someday, after everyone that knew him personally is dead and gone, Leo may make it into the Hall-of-Fame.

# 215 Rico Petrocelli – A nice pen signature. Rico had his career in 1969 and set an AL record with most HR’s by a Shortstop with 40. His fielding average that year was a .981, so he could not have been that bad of a fielder. The poor guy only finished 7th in voting for the MVP. Great year Rico!

#260 Reggie Jackson – Look at this signature! I love (hate) this card, because it seems to go with everything that we read and hear about this guy. Who else (Willie Mays excluded) would have the guts to deface his expensive rookie card with a signature like this? I guess that they were not paying Reggie enough money at this particular show. That said, Jackson did have a great year in 1969. The 23 year old Jackson hit 47 HR’s and had 118 RBI’s.

#601 Tug McGraw – You can’t talk about 1969, without including at least one of the 1969 Amazing Mets. The 24 year old McGraw had a break out year in 1969 and helped the Mets pull off a major upset. Up to that point, the Mets would not let him throw the screwball. I am missing quite a few of the Mets 1969 Topps autographed cards from my set. It is not that they are hard to find. They are not. There have been many cards shows featuring this team. They are expensive!

#573 Jim Palmer - This was my favorite card as a kid. I always wore my index finger outside my glove because of this card. Most fans do not realize that Palmer's carreer was considered finished. Jim hurt his arm in 1967 and did not pitch in the majors in 1968. He was left unprotected for the first two rounds of the 1969 expansion draft, but even these start-up teams were afraid to take a chance on him. Palmer bounced back and went 16-4 with a 2.34 ERA in 1969 and was on his way to the Hall-of-Fame.

I currently have 546 cards autographed by different players, with 134 more to obtain. 42 of the players that appear in the 1969 Topps set are currently in the Baseball Hall-of-Fame and 116 are now deceased. Click Here to view the whole 1969 Topps autographed set.